Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to delivering fully inclusive mental health and learning disabilities services for the community we serve. We are also fully committed to ensuring our staff work in an environment that is free from discrimination. Equality, diversity and inclusion, and treating people with dignity and respect is central to our values and to the quality of the services we provide.

We recognise that sometimes people receive unfair treatment and particular people may experience prejudice and/or disadvantage. We want to ensure that fair treatment and social inclusion is at the heart of everything that we do.

The Equality Act 2010 replaced all previous equalities legislation and introduced a general public sector equality duty which all public bodies - including the NHS - have to meet. The general duty has three aims and requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to:

eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by The Equality Act 2010

advance equality of opportunity between people from different groups

foster good relations between people from different groups. This involves tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups.

The Equality Act 2010 outlaws acts of discrimination against the following nine protected characteristics:

Age

Disability

Gender

Gender reassignment

Marriage and civil partnership

Pregnancy and maternity

Race

Religion or belief

Sexual orientation

The Human Rights Act 1998 was introduced to ensure people are treated with dignity and respect. Respect for the rights of individuals or groups is fundamental to their quality of life. The Human Rights Act has at its core the principles of FREDA – Fairness, Respect, Equality, Dignity and Autonomy. We believe that these principles are fundamental to the NHS in general and to our Trust specifically.

From 2015 NHS England introduced the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES). Research has shown that people from a Black or Minority Ethnic (BME) background have a worse experience of working in the NHS than white people. From this research, a series of nine metrics have been designed to highlight any gaps between the experiences of staff from and BME background and those of white staff. By understanding the reasons for these gaps we will make progress in tackling discrimination where it exists in all its forms, promoting and encouraging a fully inclusive workforce which, in turn, will positively impact upon patient care.

You can view our equality, diversity and inclusion resources on this website by accessing the links opposite.